Tree of Light

As the culmination of a two-year project for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, 40 schools and community groups working with professional dancers, musicians, visual artists and writers, created a series of four outdoor performances with a total of 1,200 participants.

Momentum provided structural engineering services to the event’s centrepiece, the 16m-high Tree of Light. This consisted of cantilevered boxes suspended above the band with rigging arms and beams inserted into the box structures. The ‘brutalist tree’ was powered by cyclists at its centre, and during the performance the monumental sculpture shuddered into life in a blaze of light powered by human energy.